M47 Dragon
The M47 Dragon, also known as the FGM-77 during development, was a SACLOS (semi active command line of sight) wire-guided anti-tank missile system developed by the United States during the 1960s and early 1970s. It was the first shoulder-launched guided antitank missile system to reach production. History The Dragon has its roots in a US Army requirement issued in September 1959 for a Medium Antitank Weapon (MAW) to replace the obsolete M67 recoilless rifle and provide a mobile supplement to the Heavy Antitank Weapon (HAW), which would become the BGM-71 TOW. The MAW project quickly elected to use the same tracking arrangement as the HAW, as this had already been concluded as feasible. The contract for the MAW was awarded to McDonnell Aircraft Company's bid in February 1966, with the weapon getting the designation XM47. The following year the designations XFGM-77A and XFTM-77A were given to the live and training versions of the missile respectively, and the name "Dragon" was assigned to the weapon. In 1970 work began on a thermal night vision sight for the Dragon: the first sight, AN/TAS-3, was a failure, but the later AN/TAS-5 entered production alongside Dragon. Dragon proved to be a highly flawed system, and was not well-liked by troops who used it. The missiles were complex and notoriously temperamental, with frequent erratic thruster behavior, control wire breaks and a tendency to ground themselves if the tracker was moved too quickly, or immediately if the operator was not ready to be relieved of almost the entire weight of the system when the missile launched. Dragon also required the gunner to remain exposed in a seated position for up to 11.5 seconds while tracking the missile to the target, and the distinctive sound of the thrusters firing made it extremely easy to identify. A US Army report found the hit rate of Dragon under combat conditions was a mere 20%. Dragon's single-stage HEAT warhead was also quickly rendered obsolete by Soviet developments in reactive armor. In 1986 the US Marine Corps initiated a product improvement program (PIP) to extend the system's service life. The Army elected not to participate in the program, as they were focusing on the Advanced Antitank Weapon System-Medium (AAWS-M) program to replace it. The first stage of this program created the Dragon II, a new and more effective warhead which was fitted to all USMC Dragons by 1988. The second stage was intended to be new rocket thrusters to increase range, but Dragon PIP was cancelled in 1989 before Dragon III improvements were finalized. Dragon was replaced in service by the FGM-148 Javelin starting in 1996 and fully withdrawn from issue in 2001, with the Army retaining a stockpile of some 12,433 missiles at Anniston Defense Munitions Center (ADMC) in Bynum, Alabama. In 2006 the Army ordered ADMC to commence destruction of this stockpile, with 7,000 missiles destroyed over the next two years and the remaining 5,433 in 2009. The last 24 Dragon missiles in the US Army's inventory were blown up in an ADMC demil pit on September 8th, 2009.https://www.army.mil/article/27423/admc_destroys_armys_last_dragon_missiles Design Details The Dragon system uses a similar wire-guided SACLOS arrangement to TOW, with an IR tracking unit on the launcher tracking a thermal beacon on the missile's tail, generating flight corrections which are transmitted via command wires to guide the missile towards the sight's point of aim. The launch tube contains the missile itself and a solid-fuel gas generator used to launch it. It also incorporates the battery that powers the daysight tracer, which is mounted near the rear of the tube with wiring routing power to the sight connector bracket, Each tube has two foam shock absorbers mounted on the ends: the front one is removed to fire the missile, while the rear one is permanently affixed and is blown apart when the missile launches to slightly mitigate backblast effects. Each tube was issued with a carrying sling, and also incorporated a large folding bipod to stabilise the front of the launcher during firing. Dragon's Kollsman SU-36/P daysight tracker is an optical device, with the output of the integral IR detector only used for guiding the missile and not viewable by the gunner. The optic is a 6× magnification scope with a 6° field of view, and has a crosshair reticle with two marked stadia lines scaled to a 3×6 meter target (9.8×19.7 feet, approximating a Soviet tank) at 1,000 meters (0.6 miles). The SU-36P also includes the weapon's trigger on its right side, which somewhat resembles the M57 "clacker" detonator used by Claymore mines. The trigger has a safety plunger which must be held for the trigger to move. The night tracker, the Philips AN/TAS-5, is a complete sighting unit which the SU-36/P has to be swapped out for. It contains all the same tracking components and the same trigger mechanism, but instead of a day optic has a 4× magnification passive IR sight, with a 3.4° by 6.8° field of view. The sight is gas-cooled and requires the insertion of a single-use cooling cartridge to function, which contains enough gas for about two hours of use. The sight used a 4.8 volt DC battery for power, with about the same lifespan as the coolant cartridge: alternatively, if a suitable power conditioner was available it could run directly from a vehicle battery. The AN/TAS-5 was a fairly hefty addition to the Dragon, weighing 9.82 kg (21.65 lbs). Dragon could be either shoulder-fired using the integral bipod, or mounted on the M175 guided missile launcher mount. The latter was a cradle mount designed to hold the launcher, with a base allowing it to be mated to a vehicle mount or placed on an M3 or M122 machine gun tripod. The propulsion of the Dragon missile after launch is quite unique, and also a major cause of the weapon's unreliability. Dragon's missile has no wings or control surfaces, only having flip-out rear fins designed to assist it in rolling: instead, the missile's body has thirty pairs of small thruster rockets in three rows of ten: these fire sequentially as the missile moves, either to manoeuvre it or simply to keep it in the air, with a thruster firing every 0.5-1 seconds during normal flight with a distinctive popping sound. The openings of these thrusters give the missile casing a look very similar to a recoilless rifle round. Firing procedure Ammunition Variants Dragon Original M222 variant, range of 1 km (0.6 miles) and single-stage HEAT warhead, penetration 330 mm (13 in) rolled homogeneous armor (RHA), 1.2m (4 feet) reinforced concrete or 2.4m (8 feet) of compacted earth. Launch tube weighed 11.5 kg (25.3 lbs). Dragon II 1986. USMC variant with improved warhead, penetration 610mm (24 in) RHA. Designated as MK 1 Mod 0 in USMC service, launch tube weighed 12.3 kg (27.2 lbs). All USMC Dragons converted to this standard by 1988. Unofficially sometimes referred to as FGM-77B. Dragon III Phase II PIP prototype with range increased to 1.5 km (0.9 miles). Cancelled in 1989. Unofficially sometimes referred to as FGM-77C. Super Dragon 1990. Also known as Dragon II+. Final Dragon variant, appears to have been produced by Raytheon for export customers based on USMC PIP. Range increased to 2 km (1.2 miles), flight speed increased, and warhead changed to a tandem charge with a precursor charge mounted on a standoff rod: performance was said to be 630mm (24.8 in) RHA behind a layer of ERA. Launch tube weighed 14.8 kg (32.6 lbs). Saeghe Saeghe (Persian: صاعقه "lightning" or "thunderbolt") is an Iranian clone of the Dragon, first produced in 2002. Saeghe 1 is a copy of Dragon II and Saeghe 2 a copy of Super Dragon. Saeghe 4 is a unique variant with a thermobaric warhead: it is unclear if there is a Saeghe 3. Mostly produced for export, only issued to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (Iranian National Guard). References * TM 9-1425-484-10 "Operator's Manual for Dragon Guided Missile System, Surface Attack: M47 (Medium Antitank/Assault Weapon System)," Headquarters, Department of the Army, July 1979. * FM 23-24 "M47 Dragon Medium Antitank Weapon System," Headquarters, Department of the Army, 30 August 2001. Category:Anti-tank missiles Category:Missile launchers